category 'need to have'."
Teacher educator
The study uses the UN definition of human rights education and training.
The UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training (2011) encompasses:
(a) “Education ABOUT human rights, which includes providing knowledge and understanding of human rights norms and principles, the values that underpin them and the mechanisms for their protection;
(b) Education THROUGH human rights, which includes learning and teaching in a way that respects the rights of both educators and learners;
(c) Education FOR human rights, which includes empowering persons to enjoy and exercise their rights and to respect and uphold the rights of others.”
(Human Rights Council resolution 16/1).
METHOD
Human rights education and training thus goes beyond education that purely provides knowledge ABOUT human rights. According to the Declaration, human rights education is to make use of participant-oriented and inclusive learning methods. THROUGH human rights education, the state shall promote equal opportunities and ensure a safe, participatory and non-discriminatory learning environment for each learner. Human rights in the setting of Danish schools and teacher university colleges should thus empower each pupil/
trainee teacher with specific skills FOR enjoying and exercising his or her own rights and for respecting and upholding the rights of others.
THE LEGISLATIVE ANALYSIS
The legislative analysis consists of a presentation of the international and regional human rights frameworks for human rights education. This means documents from the UN, the Council of Europe and the EU, together with a presentation of recent years’ recommendations from these institutions to the Danish State concerning human rights education and equal opportunities in primary and lower secondary schools.
The legislative analysis also comprises a study of the official curricula at Danish schools and teacher colleges. The official curriculum in schools is the Act on Danish primary and lower secondary schools and its appurtenant texts, also referred to as the Common Objectives, which describe the contents of the education. The Common Objectives inform teachers of what subjects and topics they are to teach their pupils. The Common Objectives are divided up into a binding component, which is mandatory for teachers to teach, and a guide to inspire teachers in how to teach in practice so that the pupils achieve the objectives of the teaching. The analysis of the Common Objectives for 19 academic subjects in primary and lower secondary schools reveals the scope of and method by which teachers have an obligation and are instructed to provide human rights education in order to achieve the interim and final objectives – and in a more general sense to fulfill the objects of Danish
The official curriculum for teacher education consists partly of an act and two executive orders governing the initial (first degree) teacher education programmes and postgraduate or vocational conversion courses (to qualify as a
‘meritlærer’) and partly of local degree programmes. Searches were performed both in the national executive order and in local degree programmes for the teacher education curriculum of 2006. Searches were also performed in the legislative basis for the teacher education curriculum of 2013.
The procedure for establishing how human rights education is incorporated in the legislative frameworks for school and teacher education curricula was first to perform a search on the term ’human rights’ in the Act on Danish primary and lower secondary schools, the Common Objectives and teacher education B.Ed. prospectuses. This search comprised the national executive orders and a total of 19 local degree programmes.
THE EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS
The empirical analysis examines how primary and lower secondary school teachers and teacher trainers report on, and perceive, their human rights teaching/training in practice. Respondents were asked how they perceive 1) the curriculum for human rights education; 2) how they personally conduct human rights education; 3) how their educational institution upholds human rights, including as regards equal opportunities and a non-discriminatory learning environment. Finally, respondents were asked 4) what motivated those of them who had taught human rights to do so.
The level of practice was also mapped by means of a questionnaire survey conducted in association with the Danish Union of Teachers. The questionnaire was sent out to 1,200 members of the Danish Union of Teachers, with a response rate of 37%. 13 focus-group interviews were conducted at municipal schools under nine different municipalities with a total of 50 teachers, together with three focus-group interviews with 12 teacher trainers representing four of Denmark’s seven university colleges.
We do not verbalise it (human rights, ed.) so specifically when we talk about education in GD (general didactics, ed). But we could very easily. Perhaps that is why we are here, because it is interesting.”
Teacher educator
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is inscribed as a compulsory component in history for the final years of lower secondary school. Social science includes binding objectives not only for human rights education, but for education in a number of constitutional rights, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the rule of law. Notably the binding component of the Common Objectives, which comprises the main academic texts for school subjects and topics, appears to be aimed primarily at
education for democratic citizenship. Equality, which is referred to in the preamble to the Act on Danish primary and lower secondary schools, is to only a lesser extent elaborated on in the Common Objectives. In the guide to the Common Objectives, there are several mentions that teachers may opt to provide human rights education, including in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In the light of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training, requirements regarding the pupils’ knowledge of human rights are
conspicuous by their absence. In other words, greater prominence should be given to human rights education, including the rights of the child and economic, social and cultural rights. There is also a lack of curriculum requirements for specific skills in relation to the pupils’ formative education throughout their schooling. This, in the sense that human rights education should be provided on an academic and well-informed basis, adapted to age-cohort and year-group and with reference to the human rights obligations assumed by Denmark both nationally and internationally.
TEACHER PERCEPTIONS OF PRACTICES IN PRIMARY AND LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS
The quantitative part of the study indicates that only a minority of Danish